Butler's Pantry Renovation - Before & After

In the video I took on inspection day you can hear me say, "so far everything looks nice in this house, until you open this swinging door." On the other side of that door was the butler's pantry. The home builder, Paul Schaefer, was know for the built-ins he made in all his homes - and he did not disappoint. The butler's pantry, with it's window to the outside and space for a breakfast nook was beautifully made and a GREAT space, it was just in sore need of a major update and renovation.

A couple of weeks ago I documented how I restored the wood floors in Part 1 of this Butler's Pantry and Breakfast Nook Series. In the next week or so I'll write about the really fantastic (if I do say so myself) breakfast nook bench I designed and built for the room. But today will showcase the rehabilitation of the Butler's Pantry. I think you will find my Formica transformation really cool...and if you still have laminate counters you might start looking at them and saying..."I wonder if I can do that."

Before Pictures

Wallpaper above the pantry

During Grandma Holly's first visit to the house she said, I think these panels on the middle doors are painted glass. To be honest, we had been in the house for over a month and had no idea. She was right! We did two test panes to see how easily we could restore them to glass. The paint came off easily, however we kept this look (only 2 panes revealed) for the next 5 months. Although it looked weird, we wanted to save all the glory for when the project was really completed.

Step One - Removal of Wallpaper

Karen enjoyed this job. She removed all the wallpaper using a paper tiger, warm water in a pump sprayer, a putty knife, more water, large sponge, scotch brite pad and elbow grease. I'll discuss the wallpaper removal process more in my next post, because there was a lot more wallpaper involved in that portion of the renovation.

This picture shows the wallpaper removed, revealing plywood...

...it also doubles as a pretty complete Before Picture

Step 2 - Remove Doors & Reface Cabinet Doors

First I removed all the doors and brought them to the basement to be refaced. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the transformation process for the doors (Karen had yet to say, "you should really start a blog to capture all the changes we are going to make.").

But fear not! I need to do the exact same process to the kitchen cabinets (some day), so I will document that process then. In a nut shell - I used strips of 1/4" X 4" poplar boards to frame each of the lower cabinet doors. The lower cabinet doors were real wood, but had plain flat panels. Adding the trim work gave the cabinet doors depth and character. As for the upper cabinet doors, I scraped all the paint off the glass. Revealing the beauty that Paul Schaefer originally intended.

Step 3 - Build Open Shelving

I drilled a a few 1 inch holes in the plywood so I could use a flash light to see what was behind the plywood. Empty Space! Time to make some open shelving. Yeah! Love open shelving!

I carefully cut the plywood with my jig saw, using the ceiling, walls, molding as a straight line guide. I took it out in a few pieces.

On the right side of the pantry you will see a portion that I did not make into open shelving. That is because those are faux cabinet doors due to that is the location of our laundry chute. Can't cut into that! The kids love it too much!...and so do we. Just pick up all the clothes the kids left every where and throw them down the chute. It is like magic...their rooms look immediately cleaner!

Then I used some left over sheet rock and 1/2" x 2" poplar strips to create some dividers that matched the cabinets below.











Step 4 - Painting Prep & Minor Drawer Improvements
You can see in the picture above where I started filling in the cabinet screw holes with spackle for painting.

Also these are old drawers. So they do not have smooth rolling bearing drawer guides. Over the years the friction of the wood on wood has caused some unevenness. I found a way to correct both issues. I used shims to level all the drawer fronts. Then I found a great product on Rockler.com. Nylo-Tape Friction Free Drawer Slide Tape. Just clean the drawer slides and then stick this tape on. Your old drawers will slide smoothly. So simple. I liked it so much I used this on all the drawers in our house and on our furniture, too! So much better than fighting to open a drawer.


Step 5 - Painting

• 1 coat of Benjamin Moore primer
• Two coats of Benjamin Moore White Dove (satin finish) on all the shelving, dividers, cabinet doors and face of the Butler's Pantry. I used their ADVANCE Waterborne Interior Alkyd Paint. It self levels much better to a smooth finish. Brush strokes are barely noticeable.
• For some contrast we chose Benjamin Moore Navajo White (Regal Select Eggshell) for the back wall of the pantry.
• To protect all the shelve tops (the portion glassware and dishes will be stacked on) - I used 3 coats of Minwax Polycrlyc.
• IMPORTANT - The reason you MUST use this instead of a a polyurethane, is because a polyurethane has a amber finish to it. You do not want to use polyurethane on something you painted white! It will turn off-white or worse. The polycrylic goes on cloudy, but dries to a crystal clear hard finish.

Above you can see the painted pantry without the doors reinstalled.

...you can also see the Moravian Light I wrote about a month ago

Step 6 - Convert Laminate to Oak Countertops

Sure I really like the woodworking I did for the open shelving and the refaced cabinet doors (you will see these below in the after pictures), but if I had to pick the one portion of this project I was most proud of, it would be my oak countertops. This is truly an idea I came up with on my own. I never saw this done online or on a TV show. I am not saying it has never been done before, but I have never SEEN it done before. I just decided to go for it and hoped it would work.

Before - laminate countertop - chipped in the center and all

My idea came to me as I was purchasing poplar boards for the cabinet refacing. I saw that Lowes had some nice red oak boards in 1/4"x 2"x 4' lengths. I figured since this countertop is not close to a water source (no sink), I could maybe glue them right on top of my formica countertop - offsetting each row- to give the counter top the look and feel of solid oak without having to rip out the laminate. This was important, because I would have had to take apart portions of the Butler's Pantry to remove the countertop. Not something I wanted to do.

I do wish I took some more in-process pictures, but I think there are enough for you to get the idea.

Steps to Convert Laminate to Oak

• Clean laminate with degreaser (good cleaning product) to remove all grease
• Sanded all surfaces with 60 grit to leave a rough surface for glue to stick to
• Drilled many 1/4 holes in all surfaces of the laminate - again to give more areas for the glue to hold onto.
• Glued the back of a board with indoor/outdoor wood glue. I spread the glue out evenly along the whole board with a small paint brush.
• Starting with my front edge I carefully laid the glued board down and attached it with clamps.
• Repeated this process for the whole countertop - alternating the seams from left to right for every other row and making cuts when necessary.
• Placed all my P90X weights (hey at least they got used for something!!!) on top of pieces of plywood to help weigh down the boards and let the glue cure overnight (see below picture)

I weighted down all the boards while the glue dried overnight

 When I removed all the boards, clamps and weights the next day I was left with this:

Awesome!!!

The next steps:

• I sanded the oak boards with my orbital sander with 60, then 120, then 200 grit sandpaper to ake all the seems smooth.
• Taped off all the edges with blue painters tape
• Karen and I decided we wanted a dark counter to go with the dark floors, so I used a can of Minwax Walnut stain we already had. Don't forget to use Minwax Pre-Stain first as I discussed in the how to restore floors entry.
• I protected the counters with 3 coats of the same satin polyurethane I used on the floors

When I was done the counter looked like this:

 Love it!

Step 7 - Reinstall Cabinet Doors and New Hardware

After lots of trial and error Karen and I finally decided on the new hardware. For the Butler Pantry and Kitchen we needed a combined 10 drawer pulls, 28 pairs of hinges and 31 knobs.

We found the perfect combo at The Home Depot, but then decided before installation that we didn't like any of them. Returned. Then we purchased everything again. This time we really did love the satin cup drawer pulls I found on Rockler.com. However I hated the hinges. So They were returned (again). Finally I found the right self-closing satin 3/8" inset hinges on Rockler. Thank goodness the 3rd time was the charm. As for the knobs, I actually found these really nice crystal octagon glass knobs on Amazon.

When installing knobs and pulls it is a good idea to build a template out of scrap wood that can be placed as a guide to make sure each is installed in the same spot.

The After Pictures:

 

Here you can see the trim work I added to reface the bottom cabinets.

Ta-da!

We are really pleased with the way the Butler's Pantry came out. With this done, I was really looking forward to the next step in this room - the Breakfast Nook Bench...it is a good one!...entry next week!

This Old House Contest - Breakfast Nook Bench & Butler's Pantry

I watch and read This Old House (and Ask This Old House) every chance I get. I dvr the episodes and watch them during any down time to get inspiration and to get the nerve to make a change!

I don't usually enter the contests, but it was a rainy Saturday morning and I couldn't work outside (yet), so I was surfing the web. One of my favorites is ThisOldHouse.com. I was just clicking away and saw the contest link. I figured the kids are still asleep and it is raining...so what the heck.

Link to Entry

I decided to enter The Breakfast Nook Bench in their Woodworking category. The website said it received my entry and they would post it after the editors have had an opportunity to review my entry. Today they posted my entry on their website! Whether I win or not, I got to admit it was fun to see my handy-work on their website! If you get a chance - visit this link to rate my entry. It is called Bench for Breakfast Nook - John S. Niskayuna, NY.

A little added enticement to visit the above link is I have yet to reveal the finished product on this blog yet, so you will get a sneak peek at The Butler's Pantry and Breakfast Nook Bench.


I believe there is also a chance that some of the entries may appear in a Fall issue of This Old House. Now that would be really cool! ***fingers crossed***

Are there wood floors under there?...Breakfast Nook Floor - Before & After

Original linoleum and some wallpaper remnants

After finishing the patio, I have taken a well deserved break from projects this past week. Therefore, I'll go back to a past project- the Breakfast Nook/Butler's Pantry posts. The first entry showed the Moravian Light I brought back from the dead and converted into a pendent light. The next item I tackled was the butler's pantry itself, but since you can see the wood floors in the after pictures - I will write about how I restored the wood floors instead. This means I have to go out of chronological order (which if you share my Type A personality - you know it is driving me crazy...but I have to do it).

The kitchen and breakfast nook share the exact same floor...which is not good for either of them! The kitchen floor is over 2 times larger than the nook, so I figured I would use the nook as my practice floor. Actually the whole nook restoration is a practice run for the kitchen, because almost the exact same changes need to happen in both - just in a larger scale.

When we first walked through the house the obligatory home buyer question was asked "Do you think there are wood floors under there?" Extremely dirty looking and permanently stained - it is safe to say the floors were in rough shape - even before Karen started chipping away at various areas to get the answer to our question. Her archaeological digs (those first few days in our new house!) determined there were wide plank pine floors under the layers of linoleum, felt, plywood and tar paper. In the picture to the left you can see her handy work at the corner of the swinging door. She also did a larger area hidden underneath the runner (to protect us from splinters) at the top of the picture. We lived with these areas for 6+ months until I started this project in January.

Her work was not for naught. The rest of our house has very nice oak wood floors, but Paul Schaefer was known for his use of wide plank floors...so we were excited to see the wide planks, knowing we could bring back some authenticity. Even so I was honestly not looking forward to the job at all. I did a similar process at the old house and it was no fun at all. When it comes to getting that tar paper off the floor there are two schools of thought:

1. Sand it off - using a new sanding disk every square foot or so (the tar fills in the grit making the sandpaper useless real fast)
2. Use hot water and a hand scraper and get ready to get mucky!...this is the way I go....if anyone else has used the sanding method with success please let me know!!!

Restoring Your Wood Floors

Step 1 - Remove the Linoleum

No pictures, but the linoleum removed pretty easily with a heavy duty floor clean up scraper. I just repeatedly slammed that in between the linoleum and the plywood and peeled up the linoleum.

Step 2 - Remove the Plywood

removing the plywood revealed the tar paper

Gloves and a face mask a must. My knee pads would have been nice, too. A mixture of hammers, screwdrivers, crowbars, floors scrapers and good ole brute force were able to remove the plywood, felt and any remaining nails. So many nails!

Use any means possible to get the old stuff up

Step 3 - Removing the Tar Paper

Tar Paper/Tar stuck to the beautiful wood - how sad

After 75+ years the tar figured it had squatter's rights to the pine boards. For some silly reason I thought I would try various "products" you can get at the hardware store to make this process easier. I'll save you some time and a lot of effort...don't try any of them. None of them help. I returned them all for a refund. By the end of day one - I was shot. My back was killing. I decided to stop and that Sunday would be another day. I would go back to my tried and true hot water method.

Hot Water Method of Removing Tar Paper

• Boil water in the tea kettle
• Pour scolding hot water in a 5 gallon pail
• Dip 4 old beach towels into pail
• Pick up a towel (with thick rubber gloves - they are hot!)
• Let excess water drip back into pail
• Lay towels over the floors in a single layer
• Wait 15 minutes
• Pick up the towels
• Scape the floor boards with a 2 inch paint scraper
• Repeat above steps 2 more times until most of the tar is gone.

Using this method is tedious, you are on your hands and knees for hours, back breaking, wet, dirty, sloppy, gooey work. Sounds fun right?! (Seeing the mess I was making, I did here the kids say, "how come you get all the fun."...really!?) When it is all said and done, I probably touched every inch of wood on that floor 8-12 times...2 inches at a time! I really may need to revisit the sanding option for the bigger kitchen floor.

Funny thing is after all that hard work you are left with a floor that is tar free but does not look very nice (see above). But don't fret. They will still look great when you are done. Keep reading on!

Imagine scraping every inch with this 8-12 times!

Step 4 - Sand the Floor

After sanding - they are starting to look like something

All that water will raise the grain of the wood, plus the wood will have many uneven spots and little remnants of tar. So sanding is still necessary. I used a 5 inch orbital sander we have owned for 10 years. About half way through the sanding it broke...wood floors is not really its intended purpose. I did go out and buy another 5 inch orbital to finish the job (they are used on so many projects!). In my last post I mentioned how one of the benefits of doing your own work is being able to buy new tools...however, that same excitement does not exist when you are buying a new tool to replace the one you just broke.

Step 5 - Stain the Floor & Polyethylene

Start light - you can always go darker. That was Karen's and my mantra when it came to the floors. We thought about having light pine boards, but had an inkling based on past experience with restoring woods floors that had been abused by nails, tar and the like that we would eventually end up dark. We were never going for pristine. We wanted the rustic wood floors. Our house has an Adirondack rustic feel from the outside, so having non-perfect wide planks floors would fit in just right.

Light stain did not do the job...too uneven.

With that said, I first applied a pre-stain conditioner that is supposed to help even out the stains absorption into soft woods. Then I applied a light stain and decided we would live with it for a few days to see what we thought....my initial thought was - we are going dark. This light stain was way too uneven.

So then I went to my local Benjamin Moore dealer and talked to them about some ideas I had in my head. As with most stains, you apply the stain, wait a few minutes and then wipe off the stain. I was noticing as I started going darker, everything looked fine when applied, but once I wiped the stain off all the unevenness reappeared. So I had used a PolyShade product on my last kitchen. It is a polyurethane and stain all in one. The big difference here is you apply it and leave it to dry. So it covers imperfections better (uneven color, nail holes, etc). Our last kitchen's floor looked fantastic for 5 years or so, before we started getting wear spots at the heavy use areas (in front of the sink, etc.). This is because the PolyShade does not penetrate the wood. So over time it has the potential to wear out.

These are what I used

My idea this time, was even though the directions say All in One - I would still cover the whole floor with 3 additional coats of real polyurethane as if I had stained it. I talked with the folks at Benjamin Moore about whether my plan should give me the coverage I was looking for without getting wear patterns over the years and they assured me I was on to something. They suggested I go with a good Polyurethane. They said this brand (pictured right) is stronger than most. The only down side is it is only allowed to be sold in Quarts.They can sell me 4 quarts, but they are not allowed to sell a gallon. Nonsensical.

So with that, I applied the Mission Oak PolyShade and three coats of Satin poly with a Lambs Wool applicator (very important).

Staining Process

• Apply a pre-stain conditioner - especially if you are staining a soft wood.
• Apply your stain according to directions. Stains get wiped off after waiting a few minutes. PolyStains do not get wiped off.
• Wait for the stain to dry.
• Apply a second coat if you want a deeper color  (I went with one coat)
• Apply polyurethane according to directions - I used a lambs wool applicator
• After it dries lightly sand with a very fine sandpaper
• Wipe off sanding dust with tack cloth
• Apply 2nd and 3rd coats of poly following the same steps. Do not sand after your final coat.

If everything was done right you should end up with something like this! Better than I ever imagined!

The floors still look great 3 months later (as they should). After some real life use they do look more satin than semi-gloss as the above picture suggests. We LOVE the floor!

The nice part is when restoring on a budget this project cost practically nothing!...as long as you do the work yourself.

• Sanding disks for orbital sander - $5
• PolyShade - $13
• Poly - 2 quarts - $16
• Lambs wool applicator - $8 (refills are cheaper if doing future jobs)

The best $42 you will ever spend!...of course I had to buy a new orbital, but that will be used for years to come.

It should go to show you no matter what your wood floors look, like they can be saved! Especially if you are willing to go a little rustic. A rustic real wood floor beats a new vinyl, linoleum or (most) laminates any day! Go for it!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little...

Up till now I have only posted about the outside of the house. In keeping with my promise from my last entry - here is the first tidbit of inside restoration. I chose to write about this mini-restoration because I had never repaired/converted a light before and am happy and proud of the results.

The first time we walked through the house with our realtor, Glenda Lewis of Coldwell Banker (btw - she also helped us buy, and then 8 years later sell, our first house too), Karen and I noticed a little treasure in the basement. It was a Moravian Star 'light.' I put quotes around 'light' because I really had never seen a set-up like this before. I'm not positive if it was really ever intended to be used as a ceiling fixture.
It was screwed into a light bulb receptacle and was rigged with an old-time adapter that was falling apart. The light was literally dangling from the wires. It was suppose to be fixed in location, but would wobble and sway if you touched it. It was so dirty you could not see through the glass. It goes without saying...it did not work...and needless to say...Karen and I wanted it!...and hoped it would be there if/when we closed. The day we closed I went downstairs and removed this dangerous future beauty from the receptacle. It made me nervous to  have it in the kids playroom. I had plans for the light!

This pretty fluorescent light can be yours just for asking
...really if you want it just leave a comment

Our breakfast nook had a hideous fluorescent light fixture. The type with a metallic plastic square grid diffuser. You know the type you find in a doctor's office or in a school. I can understand it being there since the previous longtime owners utilized the room as a second office. However for us it was a MUST go! In its place I wanted to clean up and repair the Moravian Light and covert it to a hanging chained pendant light.

You can see the holes left by the florescent fixture
and a little bit of the original wallpaper in the nook

It honestly took longer to clean the light than to convert it. I probably spent 2 hours cleaning all the various glass surfaces inside and out. As for the conversion to a pendant lamp - that was simple. I purchased a clear lamp cord, some satin nickel linked chain, a ceiling light canopy and a black light bulb socket at my local hardware store. I spray painted the canopy satin nickel. I then slipped the lamp cord through the top hole of the star and spliced the cord to the socket. I secured the socket into one of the points of the star. The rest of the process of hanging the light was similar to any other light fixture change out. Weaving the cord through the chain, connecting the cord to the wires in the ceiling, attaching the canapy to the ceiling light box, etc. I finished it with a clear bulb. I really do have tons of CFL's in my house - almost every possible light, but this light had to have a clear 60 watts.  The CFL's - even the ones that have a bulb shape - just looked too out of place.

After Picture - Part 1 - Pre Breakfast Nook Renovation

The light has a great old look to it when off, but is in all its glory when you turn on the light. the shadows cast on the walls and ceilings from the light are fantastic.

Original After Picture - Straight chain
Pre Breakfast Nook Renovation - more wallpaper

After Pictures - Part 2 - Post Breakfast Nook Renovation

As part of the Breakfast Nook Renovation I took the light fully apart and used a longer lamp cord and longer chain in order to center the light over the table with a little swooping dip and a simple screw-in hook into the ceiling. I'll probably change the hook with something decorative or older looking when I find what I am looking for.

What a tease! Sorry but this is the only portion of the breakfast nook renovation you get to see...in this post...at least you can see we repaired the holes in the ceiling, removed the wallpaper and painted! The Breakfast Nook is now complete and waiting to be unveiled so look for more posts in the future.

Prior to us there have been two families that have lived in this house for decades each. This house is still known in the neighborhood as their house. No problem since from all accounts they were a wonderful family, however, hopefully we are working on it becoming the Splendido's House. With that said, one of their sons came by the house with his family to drop off some very old papers (some very cool old facts about the house...I'll share in a future post). He saw the work we were doing in the nook and noticed the light. He was so glad to see the light being used as a main component of the house again. It turns out the light used to be in his grandmother's house originally and then his parents used it in in this house. We still do not know exactly how old the light is, but it is safe to say it is over 50 years old...perhaps much more.

So cool

I really love the shadows the Moravian Star casts on the ceiling and walls. I was worried it would be annoying when eating at the table, but you really do not notice the shadow effect when sitting below the light.

The nice thing about this little project is I could have bought similar Moravian light online for $100-$500. This one cost under $15 in parts and it doesn't just look old, it really is an antique...and best yet...I did the work myself.